Sunday 5 September - Saturday 11 September
Still no baby on Sunday, so we went swimming at the pool at Salthill. Then we had lunch at a café nearby. Afterwards we went back to Barna and Lucy had an afternoon nap. We did nothing much else except that we watched pictures of the Smith-Fyfes' trip to Neffiès after dinner.
Monday was the day that Emily was born
Granny Delia, Granny Roger and Lucy got up just after 9 am. Mummy and daddy had gone to the hospital for 8 am. Lucy and Granny Roger had "daddy white" for breakfast; Granny Delia had "mummy meusli" and "daddy white". After breakfast we played "make believe". We went on a train, on a bus and to a restaurant. Later we all went "make believe" swimming. Lucy dressed herself in a wetsuit (large blue t-shirt) and a red swimming cap (woolley animal hat). She found a purple sock each for Granny Roger and Granny Delia to balance on their heads as swimming hats. We dashed from big pool (lounge) to bubble pool (kitchen) and kicked and splashed for a very long time.
Mid-morning, the sun came through and we went for a walk to the harbour. Lucy chose to add purple body warmer, purple sandals and sunglasses to what she was wearing. She climbed into the pushchair in the kitchen and announced that she wanted to ride. This she did until we reached the harbour. It was warm and still (what brilliant un-Irish weather we enjoyed whilst waiting for Emily). At the harbour there was a high wall to walk on
and puddles (from the violent thunderstorn that seemed to be right overhead at about 3 in the morning). The puddles were good for making footprints on the dry stones. It was good that Granny Delia had packed 2 crackers and a bottle of "purple"; sustenance was needed on the way to SupaValue. We bought more "daddy green", some veg, blueberries, bread and pasta sauce and told the shop assistant who asked that Lucy wasn't the "big sister" yet but should be by the end of the day.
Before lunch, we all played at buying new shoes; we tried on lots of colours and sizes until we all had comfortable ones. Lucy ate lots of brown bread and pâté, then blueberries and more crackers for lunch.
After more make-believe games we went for another walk in the sunshine. The tricycle was rejected in favour of Rosie but, sadly, the children with the toy pushchair were not to be seen, although toys were scattered on the pavement. Rosie needed re-wrapping in her blanket several times and breastfeeding once during our outing.
Back home Lucy had a sleep and Granny Delia got a message saying that due to French air traffic controllers being on strike from 6 to 8 September we couldn't have gone home on the 7th anyway. When Lucy woke up we played shoe shops and trains some more and noughts and crosses, which had been a favourite on previous days.
Lucy did cooking whilst eating some bits of raw vegetable prepared for the usual pasta with chilli-veg sauce and lardons we cook when having dinner with Lucy whilst mummy and daddy are out. Lucy's pudding was chocolate tart brought home from our meal out in Salthill on Sunday.
Lucy chose to have a shower rather than a bath. She found the decorated baby blanket and took charge of the "man" - the little figure knitted by nanny for Paul about 35 years ago - who went to bed with her and who was the first thing she asked for/about on Tuesday morning. He was under the bed. Lucy was in bed and Grandpa Roger was just about to sing "The Marvellous Toy" as her bedtime song when daddy rang to say that Lucy had a baby sister called Emily.
All in all, Lucy was a very good girl and we had a happy day being entrusted with her by ourselves for a whole day for the first time.
Tuesday was another different day. Granny Delia and Grandpa Roger got up rather late and helped Lucy get up, get dressed and have breakfast. Then Paul arrived downstairs, having been in the house without Lucy realising it, so she was pleased to see him. We took Lucy to crèche and Paul went back to the hospital. We already knew that Emily had the all-clear to go home and Aileen was waiting to be checked. We did some shopping and prepared lunch, which Paul came back for. Then he went to collect Lucy from crèche, so they could go together to collect Aileen and Emily. Then there was a happy homecoming, the mother and new baby arriving home something like 21 hours after the birth.
On Wednesday Lucy was not quite so keen to go to crèche, with all the excitement of the previous day, but we finally persuaded her and took her there. Later Paul fetched her for her hospital appointment for her heart, which was the same as always, the murmur is still there but not enough to worry about. Delia cooked the evening meal.
It was time for us to leave on Thursday, early, very early. We set the clock for 5.00 am and left Barna at around 5.30, to drive to Dublin. The drive was fairly uneventful: we did take one wrong turn once we got to Dublin, but soon found the route again. The flight was supposed to be at 10.25 am but it was delayed by almost an hour, although we arrived at Rodez only about 20 minutes late, at 2.00 pm. We stopped to shop on the way home and also for lunch, so got home at around 5.40 pm (actual driving time is 2 hours 10). It was good to be back in Neffiès with warm sunshine and blue skies.
Despite all the washing and catching up on various things, next day we decided to recover from our trip to Ireland by going to the beach, to Serignan Plage.
On Saturday Delia went by herself to Pézenas in the morning, mostly to look for presents for various people. The market and shops were all still at full activity, although the season was over. In the evening before dinner we went for a walk: Chemin des Guessières, past the house in the vineyards with a swimming pool, past Source Minérale de St-Majan, through the "orchard" to the Roujan road, across that and through the vineyards:
Then home via Caux road and Chemin de Caux Vieux. It took just 2 hours, from 5.00 pm to 7.00 pm, but we walked quite quickly.
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